Remote e copy system and a remote copy method utilizing multiple virtualization apparatuses

ABSTRACT

A data processing system includes a first storage system including a first host and a first storage subsystem. The first host has access to a first copy manager that is operable to manage a data replication operation. A second storage system includes a second host and a second storage subsystem. The second host has access to a second copy manager that is operable to manage a data replication operation. A first communication link is coupled to the first storage system and the second storage system to exchange management information between the first and second storage systems in order to manage the data replication operation. A data transfer path is configured to transfer data stored in the first storage subsystem to the second storage subsystem and replicate the data of the first storage subsystem in the second storage subsystem. The data transfer path is different from the first communication link.

This is a continuation application of U.S. Ser. No. 10/603,076, filedJun. 23, 2003, issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,076,620 on Jun. 11, 2006.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a technology where data stored in afirst storage system is replicated in a second storage system.

2. Description of Related Art

In recent years, in order to offer a continuing service to customers atall times, a technology relating to remote replication has becomeimportant, so that a data processing system offers storage service evenwhen a primary storage system experiences a failure. U.S. Pat. No.5,170,480 to Mohan discloses a technology where information in the firstinformation processing system is replicated in a second informationprocessing system. In Mohan, a computer included in a first informationprocessing system (hereinafter, “primary host”) coupled to a disk arraydevice (hereinafter, “primary disk array device”) transmits data storedin the primary disk array device to a disk array device (hereinafter,“secondary disk array device”) included in a second informationprocessing system through a communication line and a computer includedin the secondary information processing system (hereinafter, “secondaryhost”).

On the other hand, due to development of computer networks, informationprocessing systems owned by business enterprises become morecomplicated. As a result, the requirement for collective management ofapparatuses connected to a network is increasing. As a technologysatisfying such a demand, there has been devised a technology calledvirtualization where a plurality of storage subsystems connected withone another through a network, such as a Fibre Channel or the Internet,are managed collectively and are provided to the user as a virtuallysingle or plural storage subsystems. Thereby, the user of theinformation processing system can use the plurality of storagesubsystems as if it were a single storage subsystem.

As used herein, the term “storage subsystem” refers to the storageapparatus such as a hard disk drive, an aggregate of a plurality of harddisk drives, a disk array device wherein a control unit controls aplurality of hard disk drives, etc.

As used herein, the term “storage system” and “site” both refers to thesystem comprised of one or more host computers and one or more storagesubsystems connected to them.

A host computer may be referred to as “host”.

A storage device may be referred to as “storage”.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Here, consider a case where the Mohan's technology is applied to acomplicated information processing system.

In Mohan, the data stored in both disk array devices is transferredbetween the primary host and the secondary host. That is, each host isused as a path for the data transfer. Further, each host connected tothe network retains information on a plurality of disk array devicesconnected to the network (network address etc.).

Therefore any one of a large number of the existing disk array devicesis selected by each host appropriately and data is easily replicated ina selected disk array. In particular, in the case where the Mohan'stechnology is applied to the virtualization, a device that controls thevirtualization (computer or switch) and hosts can be brought intocooperation with one another. However, since the data stored in eachdisk array device is transferred through a communication link betweenthe hosts, there is a problem that channel load of the hosts and trafficof the line connecting the hosts increase.

One embodiment of this invention is directed to solve the above problem.A primary host and a secondary host monitor statuses of storagesubsystems connected to the hosts, for example, each of the primary andsecondary disk array devices, based on software operating on each host.Further, the primary or secondary host directs the data transfer betweendisk array devices to the primary or secondary disk array device ifneeded. Moreover, each host exchanges information for performing thedata transfer between the disk array devices by inter-hostcommunication. On the other hand, data stored in each disk array deviceis transferred between the disk array devices directly. A configurationwhere the data is transferred by using a removable storage medium suchas a tape device rather than the private line is possible.

In another implementation, the primary disk array device storesinformation for updating data stored in the primary disk array device as“journal” (updating history). More specifically, the journal is therecord comprised of a copy of the data used for updating and metadata.Furthermore, the primary disk array device is so configured as totransfer this journal to the secondary disk array device according toinstructions of the primary and secondary hosts. The secondary diskarray device updates the data stored in the secondary disk array devicesimilarly to the update method performed in the primary disk arraydevice, i.e., by using the journal received from the primary disk arraydevice according to instructions of the secondary host. Updating in theprimary disk array device is reproduced in the secondary disk arraydevice, so the latter updating (in the secondary disk array device) maybe referred to as “restore”.

In still another implementation, it may be applicable that journal istransferred by issuing a journal copy instruction to the primary diskarray device.

In yet another implementation, it may also be applicable that the diskarray device connected to each host is a storage subsystem that isvirtualized by a device for controlling the virtualization. In thiscase, the data transfer is performed between devices each forcontrolling the virtualization or by each storage subsystems connectedto the device for controlling the virtualization.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a hardware configuration of a data processing systemaccording to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an outline of operations performed in thedata processing system of FIG. 1 according to one embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 3 shows operations of acquisition, copy and restore processing ofthe journal in the one embodiment data processing system disclosed inFIG. 1.

FIG. 4 shows a PVOL and a primary journal volume 2222A that are used inthe embodiment of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 shows correspondence of the journal data areas of a primaryjournal volume and of a secondary journal volume.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the details of acquisition, copy andrestore processing of the journal according to one embodiment of thepresent embodiment.

FIG. 7 shows a data processing system according to another embodiment ofthe present invention system;

FIG. 8 shows a data processing system according to yet anotherembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 shows a data processing system according to yet anotherembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 shows a logical configuration of the data processing system ofFIG. 1.

FIG. 11 shows a data processing system according to yet anotherembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 shows a data processing system according to yet anotherembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 shows a data processing system according to yet anotherembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 14 shows a data processing system according to yet anotherembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 15 shows a data processing system according to yet anotherembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 16 shows a table of including address information of disk arraydevices comprising a virtual storage volume that has been associatedwith a host in a virtualization server 300B of FIG. 13.

FIG. 17 shows a secondary journal volume and a SVOL that are used by thedata processing system of FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 shows a hardware configuration of a data processing system 50according to a first embodiment of this invention.

This data processing system comprises a first storage system 10(hereinafter, “primary storage system” or “primary site”) having aprimary host 100A and a primary storage subsystem or disk array device200A, a second storage system 20 (hereinafter, “secondary storagesystem” or “secondary site”) having a secondary host 100B and asecondary storage subsystem or disk array device 200B, and a remoteconsole 40. In the embodiments disclosed herein, disk array devices areused as the storage subsystems for illustration purposes. The storagesubsystems may be storage devices other than disk array devices and arenot limited thereto. The primary site and the primary disk array devicesmay be referred to as a first site and a first disk array device,respectively. Similarly, the secondary site and the secondary disk arraydevices may be referred to as a second site and a second disk arraydevice, respectively.

Each host 100 (the primary host 100A and the secondary host 100B) is acomputer that has a CPU 110, a main memory 120, and an input/output(I/O) processing device 130. For example, it may be a workstation, amicrocomputer, a mainframe computer, or the like.

Each disk array device 200 (the primary disk array device 200A and thesecondary disk array device 200B) has a storage controller 210, aplurality of disk units 220, and an SVP (Service Processor) 230. Thestorage controller 210 has a host adapter 211, cache memory 212, a diskadapter 213, a processor 214, and control memory 215.

The primary host 100A is connected with the primary disk array device200A and the secondary host 100B is connected with the secondary diskarray device 200B, respectively, with a Fibre Channel 66. The CPU 110and the main memory 120 of each host 100 are connected to the hostadapter 211 of the disk array device 200 through the I/O processingdevice 130 and the Fibre Channel 66.

Further, the primary disk array device 200A and the secondary disk arraydevice 200B are connected with each other through a Fibre Channel 68.The primary disk array device and the secondary disk array device may beprovided within the same room, or building. Alternatively, they may beseparated by a considerable distance to safeguard against both devicesexperiencing a common failure at the same time. If the distance betweenthe primary site 10 and the secondary site 20 is long, that is, thedistance exceeds the data transferable distance of the Fibre Channel 68,the disk array devices may be connected through a long-distancecommunication link, such as, ATM through extender devices in addition tothe Fibre Channel 68.

The remote console 40 is also a computer that has a CPU and a mainmemory. The remote console 40, the primary host 100A, the secondary host100B, the primary disk array device 200A, and the secondary disk arraydevice 200B are interconnected through an IP network 48, such as LAN(Local Area Network) or WAN (Wide Area Network). That is, the dataprocessing system 50 includes at least two communication links couplingthe primary and secondary storage systems, the Fibre Channel 68 linkingthe disk array devices 200A and 200B and the IP network 48 linking thehosts 100A and 100B. In the present embodiment, these two communicationlinks are of different technologies, as explained above. However, thecommunication links 48 and 66 may be of the same technology, e.g., bothmay be an IP network.

FIG. 10 shows a logical configuration of the data processing system ofFIG. 1.

In each host 100, an asynchronous copy manager 150 that is a program forcontrolling the data transfer between the disk array devices 200 isexecuted on the CPU 110. The asynchronous copy manager 150 is stored inthe main memory 120. Each host 100 executing the asynchronous copymanager 150 manages respective disk array device 200 with respect tooperations relating to the journal processing (e.g., acquisition andtransfer of the journal, and restoration of data using the journal) inresponse to a user's request inputted to each host 100 directly or via anetwork, or a request that has been prearranged. The details of journalprocessing will be described later.

Further, the asynchronous copy managers 150 of the hosts 100 communicatewith together during the journal processing using an IP network 48 andexchange management information that are needed to facilitate thejournal processing, e.g., journal creation state, which will bedescribed later.

On a storage controller 210 of each disk array device 200, a copyprogram 2110 and a journal-backup/restore program 2120 are executed bythe processor 214. These programs are stored in control memory 215. Thejournal-backup/restore program 2120 is composed of a journal backupprogram and a journal restore program. Moreover, the storage controller210 handles I/O requests to the disk device 220 based on instructionsfrom the hosts in addition to the copy program 2110 and thejournal-backup/restore program 2120.

The disk device 220 includes or is associated with one or more logicalstorage areas (volumes). These logical volumes are used as a data volumearea 2210 or a journal volume area 2222, as desired by the user.

By executing the asynchronous copy manager 150, each host 100 controlsexecution of the journal-backup/restore program 2120 and the copyprogram 2110 provided for each disk array device 200. In each host 100,application programs 152 used by the user and a program serving as adisk array device control interface (hereinafter, “RAID manager”) areexecuted by the CPU 110 of each host 100. Moreover, the asynchronouscopy manager 150 and the RAID manager exchange information mutuallyusing an inter-program communication.

On the remote console 40, a program 42 called a remote console storagenavigator is executed. The remote console 40 performs management ofconstituent members of the data processing system of this embodiment,more specifically, the hosts 100 and the disk array devices 200, byexecuting the program 42. The program 42 is stored in the main memory ofthe remote console 40.

The programs explained so far are installed in a storage mediumassociated with each device, e.g., a removable storage medium, such as acompact disk and a magnetic-optical disk, or through the IP network 48.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the outline of operations of the dataprocessing system of the first embodiment.

At step 9100, by using a graphical user interface (“GUI”), which isincluded in either the host 100 or the remote console 40, the userinputs a pair generation command to the host 100 (either of the primaryhost 100A or the secondary host 100B may be used). The pair generationcommand is a command that associates a first volume (hereinafter,“PVOL”) 2212 of the primary disk array device 200A, which is targetedfor journal acquisition, and a second volume (hereinafter, “SVOL”) 2214of the secondary disk array device 200B, which is a replication pair ofPVOL.

The host 100 that received the pair generation command controls thefirst and second disk array devices 200A and 200B, so that a volume2222A for storing a journal of the PVOL 2212 (hereinafter, “journalvolume”) is allocated in the primary disk array device 200A and ajournal volume 2222B for storing a journal of the SVOL 2214 is allocatedin the secondary disk array device 200B (Step 9110). A pair of PVOL 2212and the journal volume 2222A assigned to PVOL 2212 is referred to as ajournal group, and a pair of SVOL 2214 and the journal volume 2222Bassigned to SVOL 2214 is called a journal group. A journal group is alsocited as “journal pair”. And the pair generation command also definesthe association of the journal pair of PVOL and the journal pair ofSVOL. This association (i.e. pair of journal pairs) is cited as “devicegroup”.

Each of the PVOL and SVOL may include only one volume, or may be a groupof two or more volumes (volume group). A user specifies a volume groupat the time of inputting the pair generation command. Each disk arraydevice 200 is provided with a capability, so that the specified volumegroup may be treated as a single virtual volume and may perform journalprocessing (described later) as if it were using a single volume. Thejournal volume may be a volume group as well.

In this embodiment, the first host 100A primarily controls the firstdisk array device 200A, and the secondary host 100B primarily controlsthe secondary disk array device 200B. Therefore, when the secondary host100B receives the pair generation command, the secondary host 100Btransfers information required by the first disk array device 200A amongpieces of information included in the pair generation command(information for specifying a device group) to the primary host 100Athrough the IP network 48. Similarly, when the first or primary host100A receives the pair generation command, the primary host 100Atransfers information required by the secondary disk array device 200Bto the secondary host 100B.

As methods for allocating a journal volume, at least the following twomethods may be used for the present embodiment: (1) at the time ofinputting the pair generation command, the user itself specifies thejournal volume; and (2) the host 100 selects an unused logical volumearbitrarily and uses it. For example, the following procedures aretaken. First, in each disk array device 200, unused logical volumes aremanaged in the respective control memory 215 as a journal volume poolfor future user as the journal volumes.

Each disk array device 200 notifies information on the logical volumesregistered in the journal volume pool, for example, physical addressesin the disk array device 200A, the storage capacity of the physicalvolume, etc. to the respective host 100. The host 100 that received thepair generation command selects an appropriate volume as the journalvolume based on the information notified by the disk array device. Inone implementation, it does not matter whether the selected volume is asingle volume or a volume group, i.e., a plurality of volumes. If it isa plurality of volumes, the volumes are treated as a single virtualvolume.

The user can specify whether or not a normal application executed on thehost 100 is capable of issuing I/O request to the journal volume. Thereare two cases: (1) one is that a volume allocated on the disk device 220used for normal I/O processing is selected as the journal volume; and(2) the other is that a volume that the host 100 cannot use for thenormal I/O processing is selected as the journal volume.

In the former case, the journal can be seen from a normal application onthe host 100 or from another host connected to the disk array device 200through the Fibre Channel. Therefore, acquisition and control ofstatistics on the journal can be performed by a normal application, butthere is possibility of destroying the journal erroneously.

In the latter case, the journal of the host 100 is allowed to be seenonly when the host 100 executing the asynchronous copy manager 150 makeseach disk array device 200 execute the journal restore program or thecopy program. Therefore, the journal is not destroyed by the normal I/Oprocessing performed by the host 100.

Thereafter, a journal processing is performed, e.g., in the firststorage system 10 (Step 9120). The journal processing includes anacquisition operation 9122, a copy operation 9124, and a restorationoperation 9126. The journal acquisition operation or process 9122involves the primary disk array device 200A acquiring the journal forPVOL 2212 after receiving a journal acquisition start command from theprimary host 100. After receiving the command, the primary disk arraydevice 200A commence storing journal data and metadata in the journalvolume 2222A (step 9220) after each write operation to PVOL 2212 (Steps9200 and 9210). The journal data is a copy of the data written orupdated according to the write command. The metadata providesinformation relating to a time when the update data is stored in thePVOL 2212, the storing address of the written (updated) data, address ofthe corresponding journal data in the journal data area, and the lengthof the data. A journal is composed of the journal data and correspondingmetadata.

After the journal acquisition processing has been started, each host 100executes the asynchronous copy manager 150, and controls journal copyprocessing periodically. The journal copy processing relates totransferring of the journal between the first and second disk arraydevices 200A and 200B. The journal copy process 9124 is initiated whenthe primary host 100A decides that the journal needs to be copied (e.g.,a predetermined amount of information has been stored in the journalvolume 2222A in the primary disk device 200A) according to theinformation on journal creation state acquired from the primary diskdrive 200A (details will be described later) The primary host 100A, inturn, notifies the secondary host 100B via the link 48.

Thereupon, the secondary host 100B then transmits a copy request(“journal copy request command”) to the secondary disk array device 200Bto initiate journal transfer from the primary disk array device 200A(Step 9300).

After receiving the journal copy request command, the secondary diskarray device 200B issues a data read request to the primary disk arraydevice 200A (Step 9310). The primary disk array device 200A transmitsthe requested data to the secondary disk array device 200B by executingthe copy program 2110. Details of the journal copy processing will bedescribed later.

On the other hand, the data that had been stored in PVOL 2212 before thejournal acquisition process was started is not transferred to thesecondary disk array device 200B even when the journal copy processingwas started. Therefore, it is necessary to copy these data (hereafter“initial data”) to SVOL 2214 from PVOL 2212. In the present embodiment,an initial copy process is used to transfer the initial data from thePVOL 2212 to SVOL 2214 (Step 9130). The initial data are transferredsequentially from the volume head area to the end of PVOL 2212 accordingto instructions of the host 100. This process may also be performed byallowing each disk array device 200 itself to execute the copy program2110.

The initial copy and the journal copy processing may be performedasynchronously and in parallel. That is, the initial copy can beperformed anytime after PVOL 2212 and SVOL 2214 have been specifiedbased on the pair generation command, regardless of whether or not thejournal acquisition process and the journal copy process has beenperformed or is being performed. However, as long as the initial copyhas not been completed, the contents of SVOL 2214 does not reflects PVOL2212 even if the restoration process 9126 has been performed at thesecondary disk array device 200B. The restore or restoration processinvolves updating or coping the data of PVOL 2212 in the SVOL 2214 usingthe journal that have been received from the primary disk array device200A according to the copy process 9124.

In one implementation, the initial copy initiated by the secondary diskarray device 200B issuing one or plural read commands to the primarydisk array device 200A in order to reduce the load of the primary diskarray device 200A.

Once all initial data have been copied into SVOL 2214 of the secondarydisk array device 200B, the copy program 2110B reports completion of theinitial copy to the secondary host 100B. Thereafter, an accuraterecovery of data in the secondary site 20 becomes possible. Generally,the initial copy is started after the start of the journal acquisitionprocessing.

The journal acquisition process 9122 may be stopped by a command(“journal acquisition stop command”) from the host 100A to the primarydisk array device 200A.

After receiving a journal restore request command from the secondaryhost 100B (Step 9400), the secondary disk array device 200B restores thedata stored in the SVOL 2214 by using the journal stored in the journalvolume 2222B (Step 9410). This process is referred to as a journalrestore process. The details of journal restore process will bedescribed later.

FIG. 3 illustrates journal acquisition, journal copy, and journalrestore processes according to the first embodiment of the invention.These processes are controlled by respective hosts 100A and 100B byexecuting the asynchronous copy manager 150. The primary disk arraydevice 200A executes the journal backup program 2122 in thejournal-backup/restore program 2120. By executing the journal backupprogram 2122, the primary disk array device 200A stores a copy of thedata that is to be written in PVOL 2212, in the journal volume 2222A, asjournal data. The primary disk array device 200A also stores metadata inthe journal volume 2222A as part of the journal. The above step isreferred to as the journal acquisition process 9122.

The secondary disk array device 200B performs the journal restoreprocess 9126 by executing a journal restore program 2124 in thejournal-backup/restore program 2120. The journal restore program 2124restores journal in the journal volume 2222B, so that the data volume2214 reflects the updated data image of PVOL 2212.

Hereafter, the journal acquisition, copy and restore processes will beexplained using block diagrams of FIG. 3.

When the journal acquisition process for the data volume 2210 is startedin the primary disk array device 200A, the primary disk array device200A creates the journal and stores it in the journal volume 2222Aaccording to write operation 5100 from the primary host 100A to PVOL2212 (Step 5200).

The primary host 100A acquires information on journal creation state(e.g., storage size of the journals in the journal volume) from theprimary disk array device 200A by issuing ajournal-creation-state-acquisition command to the primary disk arraydevice 200A by executing the asynchronous copy manager 150 (Step 5300).

The primary host 100A communicates the acquired information on thejournal creation state acquired to the secondary host 100B via the IPnetwork 48, so that the remote replication process can be coordinated bythe two host devices (Step 5000). One of the use of this information isto notify the hosts 100A and 100B as to when the journal in the journalvolume 2222A is ready to be copied to the secondary disk device 200B.

The secondary host 100B executes the asynchronous copy manager 150 andissues the journal copy request command to the secondary disk arraydevice 200B in accordance with an instruction from the user inputtedthrough GUI or a predetermined schedule or via a notification from theprimary host 100A (Step 5400).

The journal copy request command includes information specifying thejournal (plurality of journals can be applied) to be copied, the journalvolume in which that journal is stored, and the disk array device 200having that journal volume. The request also includes informationspecifying the destination journal volume where the copied journal is tobe stored.

The storage controller 210B of the secondary disk array device 200Breceives the journal copy request command and issues a read command tothe primary disk array device 200A by executing the copy program (Step5500). The primary disk array device 200A receives the read command andtransmits the journal specified by the read command to the secondarydisk array device 200B (Step 5600). An area wherein the transmittedjournal was stored is purged, so that a new journal may be storedtherein.

Upon receipt of the journal, the secondary disk array device 200B storesthe journal in the journal volume 2222B specified by the journal copyrequest command. Subsequently, the secondary host 100B issues thejournal restore request command to the secondary disk array device 200B(Step 5700).

The secondary disk array device 200B receives the journal restorerequest command and executes the journal restore program 2124, therebyrestoring data from the journal volume 2222B to SVOL 2214 (Step 5800).An area wherein the restored journal has been stored is purged, so thata new journal can be stored.

The host 100 executing the asynchronous copy manager 150 can performhost fail over. That is, in the case where the primary host 100A becomesunavailable for a certain reason and cannot continue with the journalcopy process, the secondary host 100B may perform the functions of theprimary host 100A as well.

In one implementation, the primary disk array device is coupled to aplurality of primary hosts, as in a storage area network. The journalacquisition and other processes disclosed above may be performed in sucha configuration with some modification, as will be understood by oneskilled in the art.

FIG. 4 shows correspondence of a PVOL 2212 and a journal volume 2222Aused in this embodiment. Hereafter, the journal volume 2222A is called aprimary journal volume, and the journal volume 2222B is called asecondary journal volume. Both data structures are fundamentally thesame.

Generally, each of PVOL, SVOL and the journal volumes is managed inunits of a predetermined logical block, e.g., 512 KB. Each of thelogical blocks is given a logical block address (hereinafter, “LBA”).

The primary journal volume has a metadata area 7100 and a journal dataarea 7200. In the journal data area 7200, the previously describedjournal data 7210, i.e., the copy of data 5110 stored in PVOL by thewrite command, is stored. In the metadata area 7100, the previouslydescribed metadata 7110, i.e., information indicating a time when eachupdate data is stored in PVOL 2212, the storing address 7112 of thewritten (updated) data, address 7114 of the corresponding journal data7210 in the journal data area 7200, and the length of the data, arestored.

Each address can be expressed with LBA and the length of data can beexpressed with the number of logical blocks. Moreover, the address ofdata can be expressed as the difference from the base address (head LBA)of the area (journal data area or metadata area), i.e., offset. Further,while the length of the metadata is fixed (e.g., 64 Byte), the length ofthe journal data is not fixed as it depends on the updated data by thewrite command in the present embodiment.

At the time of defining the journal group, each disk array device 200performs setup of the metadata area 7100 and the journal data area 7200for the journal volume 2222 to be set up. At this time, a head LBA andblock count of each area are specified. Each host 100 executes theasynchronous copy manager 150 and issues a command (journal groupcomposition acquisition command) that requests information on the set-uparea (head LBA, block count) to the disk array device 200. This allowseach host 100 to acquire information on the metadata area 7100 and thejournal data area 7200 that each disk array device 200 has set.

FIG. 17 shows correspondence of a secondary journal volume 2222B andSVOL 2214 used in this embodiment. The secondary journal volume also hasa metadata area 7100 and a journal data area 7200. In the metadata area7100, the metadata 7110B, which is copied from the metadata area of theprimary journal volume 2222A, is stored. In the journal data area 7200,the journal data 7210B, which corresponds to the metadata 7110B andcopied from the journal data area of the primary journal volume, isstored.

While the metadata is the information about the update of PVOL 2212, itsaddress information 7114 shows the address of the corresponding journaldata 7210, which is copied to the journal data area in the secondaryjournal volume. Further, by copying journal data 7210 from the journaldata area 7200 of the secondary journal volume 2222B to the address inSVOL 2214 corresponding to the address 7112, the update of PVOL 2212 canbe reflected in SVOL 2214.

FIG. 5 shows the journal data areas of the primary journal volume and ofthe secondary journal volume according to the present embodiment.

The primary journal volume and the secondary journal volume areaddressed with LBAs, and each LBA is brought into correspondence in a1-to-1 manner.

The journal data area 7200 that the primary journal volume has isdifferentiated into a journal-stored area 2232, 2233, and 2234, in whichthe journal data are stored, and an already-purged area 2231 in which nojournal data is stored. The already-purged area is used for storing newjournal data of PVOL 2212.

The journal data area 7200 that the secondary journal volume has isdifferentiated into: an already-restored area 4231 in which the journaldata having already been used for restore for SVOL is stored (or nojournal data is stored); an in-restore area 4232 in which the journaldata specified as a target of journal restore for SVOL is stored; analready-read area 4233 in which the journal data that are not beingtargeted for a journal restore process is stored; and an in-read area4234 in which the journal data being transferred from the primaryjournal volume is stored.

The already-purged area 2231 of the primary journal volume is broughtinto correspondence with part of the in-restore area 4232 or thealready-restored area 4231 of the secondary journal volume.

The journal-stored area of the primary journal volume is brought intocorrespondence with the already-read area 4233, the in-read area 4234,or part of the already-restored area 4231. Here, the journal-stored area2232 that corresponds to the already-read area 4233 can be purgedbecause the journal has already been transmitted to the secondary diskarray device 200B. Moreover, the journal data stored in thejournal-stored area 2233 that corresponds to the in-read area 4234preferably cannot be purged because it is targeted for the datatransfer. There is no necessity of purging the journal-stored area 2232immediately after the completion of the corresponding journal copy. Itis applicable that the purge is executed periodically, or even accordingto the indication (“journal purge command”) to purge the journal-storedarea 2232 issued from the primary host 10A.

Areas occupied by the journal data areas 7200 of the primary andsecondary journal volumes, respectively, are identified by each host 100by pointers indicating LBAs of the logical blocks located at boundariesof the areas. The information on a journal processing state that theprimary host 100A acquires from the primary disk array device 200Aincludes values of these pointers.

Each host 100 acquires the values of these pointers from the disk arraydevice 200 connected to the host 100 by issuing thejournal-creation-state-acquisition command to the disk array device 200.Then, using the values of these pointers, the host 100 judges in whicharea of the journal volume the journal data is stored. The values ofthese pointers are stored in the control memory 215 in oneimplementation.

Hereafter, each pointer will be described. Note that, in FIG. 5, LBAsare allocated from the top to the bottom of the figure. Therefore, thenumber of LBA in the top of the figure is smallest. Moreover, thejournal volume is used repeatedly as with a cyclic buffer. That is, ifthe last logical block of the journal volume was used, the head logicalblock is used again. In either primary or the secondary journal volume,the data are written in the sequential manner. First, the pointer of theprimary journal volume will be described.

A journal-out LBA 2241 is a pointer indicating an LBA corresponding tothe logical block in the head of the journal-stored area. The oldestjournal data that have not been purged from the primary journal volumeis stored in the logical block indicated by this pointer. The primaryhost 100A or the secondary host 100B decide the logical blockcorresponding to the LBA indicated by the journal-out LBA 2241 as thelogical block in the head of the journal data that is targeted for thetransfer.

A journal-in LBA 2242 is a pointer indicating an LBA corresponding to anempty logical block that adjoins the last logical block in which journaldata are stored, namely a pointer indicating the LBA corresponding tothe logical block in which journal data will first be stored at the nextjournal acquisition process. The primary host 100A or secondary host100B decide that the logical blocks, each having an LBA equal or greaterthan that of the logical block corresponding to an LBA indicated by thejournal-in LBA 2422, are usable for storing journal data.

Further, the primary host 101A or the secondary host 100B decide thatthe journal data is stored in an area from an LBA of the journal-out LBA2241 to an LBA provided just before the journal-in LBA 2242. Therefore,if the journal-out LBA=the journal-in LBA, the primary host 100A orsecondary host 100B decide that the journal data to be transferred tothe secondary journal volume is not contained in the journal data areaof the primary journal volume.

Next, pointers of the secondary journal volume will be described.

An already-restored LBA 4241 is a pointer indicating the logical blockhaving the largest LBA among the logical blocks on which the restoreprocessing has been completed. Therefore, the logical blocks having anLBA smaller than an LBA indicated by the already-restored LBA pointerwill be used to store the journal data that is newly transferred fromthe primary journal volume. That is, in the logical blocks of the LBAsequal or less than the already-restored LBA 4241, the journal data ispurged.

Purging of the secondary journal volume may be performed automaticallyby the storage controller 210 after the restore processing is completed.Purging the journal data can be achieved by actually overwritingmeaningless data on the journal data or by moving the pointer toindicate that the area is ready to be written (overwritten). Similar tothe purging of the journal-stored area 2232 in PVOL, it is not necessityto purge the secondary journal volume immediately after the completionof the corresponding restore processing.

The restore-scheduled LBA 4242 is a pointer indicating that the journalrestore request command to restore SVOL 2214 using the journal datastored in an area from the logical block indicated by an LBA larger thanthe already-restored LBA 4241 to the logical block indicated by therestore-scheduled LBA 4242 has been issued by the secondary host 100B.Therefore, if the restore-scheduled LBA=the already-restored LBA, thereis no journal data to be targeted for restoration in the secondaryjournal volume.

An already-read LBA 4243 is a pointer for indicating the logical blockhaving the largest LBA among the logical blocks storing the journal datareceived from the primary disk array device 200A. In other words, thispointer indicates the logical block in which an end of the journal datatransferred to the secondary disk array device 200B by the primary diskarray device 200A.

The secondary host 100B confirms by the already-read LBA 4243 that thejournal data of the primary journal volume corresponding to the journaldata stored in an LBA indicated by this pointer has been stored in thesecondary journal volume. The secondary host 100B that performed theconfirmation notifies the primary host 100A as to information on thealready-read LBA 4243. Based upon this information, the primary host101A instructs the primary disk array device 200A to purge the journaldata area up to the logical block in which the journal datacorresponding to the already-read LBA 4243 is stored. This purging mayalso be achieved by moving the pointer of the journal-out LBA 2241.

A read-scheduled LBA 4244 is a pointer indicating LBA of an end logicalblock in the journal data area targeted by the newest journal copyrequest that the secondary host 100B issued to the secondary disk arraydevice 200B. Therefore, if the read-scheduled LBA=the already-read LBA,there is no journal data that is targeted for journal copying. That is,no disk array device 200 is performing the journal copy process.

Further, there is the same relationship among the metadata areas of theprimary and secondary journal volumes. Similar to the journal data area,pointers for the metadata area (journal-out LBA, journal-in LBA,already-restored LBA, restore-scheduled LBA, already-read LBA andread-scheduled LBA; they are different pointers to the ones of thejournal data area) are used by the hosts 100 and storage controllers 210for the purpose of managing the metadata areas.

By executing the asynchronous copy manager 150 on both sides, each host100 may check the journal acquisition state in each disk array device200 by acquiring a value of each pointer. For example, each host 100calculates, for the primary and secondary journal volumes, how much orwhat percentage of the journal volume is being utilized based on thestorage size of the journal volume determined at the time of the journalgroup generation and a difference of the pointers acquired from the diskarray device 200.

Based upon this determination, each host 100 instructs to each diskarray device 200 the following: to which point the journal stored in theprimary journal volume should be purged; to which point the journalshould be transferred to the secondary disk array device 200B among thejournal stored in the primary journal volume; to which point the journaldata should be restored in SVOL among the transferred journal data; etc.

For example, it may be prescribed that when the secondary host 100Bissues the journal copy request to the secondary disk array device 200Bto initiate the copy process if the host 100B determines that thejournal stored in the primarily journal volume occupies at least 50percent of its storage capacity.

The instructions that hosts 100 issue to the disk array devices 200include a journal-creation-state-acquisition command as well as thejournal processing command.

The journal-creation-state-acquisition command is issued in two cases:(1) where the primary host 100A wishes to acquire information as to howmuch of the journal is accumulated in the primary journal volume; (2)where the secondary host 100B wishes to acquire information as to howfar the read process and the restore process of the secondary journalvolume should proceed.

The journal processing command is issued in two cases: (1) where theprimary host 100A wishes to purge the primary disk array device 200A ofthe journal; and (2) the secondary host 100B wishes to initiate thejournal copy process and the journal restore process by the secondarydisk array device 200B.

The LBAs of the primary journal volume and of the secondary journalvolume are specified to 1:1, but the storage area of the secondaryjournal volume may be specified to be greater than that of the primaryjournal volume, which requires a method for performing proper addressconversion from the primary journal volume to the secondary journalvolume. Therefore, the journal copy request command and journal restorerequest command are kinds of the journal processing command.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing details of the acquisition, copy, andrestore processes according to present embodiment.

The primary host 100A acquires information on the journal-stored area ofthe primary disk array device 200A periodically (at predeterminedintervals scheduled according to the user's request or at predeterminedtime) by using the pointers of the journal-out LBA and the journal-inLBA (Steps 6100, 6200; Step 5300 of FIG. 3) and sends the acquiredinformation to the secondary host 100B (Step 6110).

The secondary host determines the logical block area of the primaryjournal volume that is targeted for the journal copy processing based onnotified information indicating the journal-stored area. In addition,the primary host 100A can determine beforehand the logical block area ofthe primary journal volume that is targeted for the journal copying.

Subsequently the secondary host 100B issues the journal copy requestcommand that includes information indicating the determined logicalblock area and information specifying the disk array device 200 that istargeted for the journal copying to the secondary disk array device 200B(Step 6300; Step 5400 of FIG. 3). The secondary disk array device 200Bthat received the journal copy request command issues the read commandrequesting the journal stored in the specified logical block area to thespecified primary disk array device 200A. As shown in FIG. 4, thejournal area is divided into the metadata area and the journal dataarea. The metadata area is specified by a journal copy request. When thesecondary disk array device 200B receives a journal copy request, itissues a read command to copy from the specified logical blocks in themetadata area, determines which logical blocks in the journal data areais corresponding to the metadata according to the address in themetadata, and issues a read command to copy from the determined logicalblocks (i.e. the corresponding journal data). Alternatively, thesecondary disk array device may issue the read commands to copy themetadata and journal data at the same time. In such case, the addressand data lengths of each read command is calculated from the pointers.For example, for the journal data, the journal data area from theread-scheduled LBA+1 to the journal-in LBA−1 of the primary journalvolume is copied to the corresponding journal data area of the secondaryjournal volume. (Step 6400; Step 5500 of FIG. 3)

On the other hand, the secondary host 100B acquires the journalprocessing state of the secondary disk array device 200B periodically(Steps 6310, 6320, and 6410) by issuing thejournal-creation-state-acquisition command. That is, the values of thepointers of the already-read LBA 4243 and the read-scheduled LBA 4244are acquired from the secondary disk array device 200B. The secondaryhost 100B judges that journal copy process (i.e. read) has beencompleted if values of the already-read LBA 4243 and of theread-scheduled LBA 4244 agree with each other.

In the case where information of the read-scheduled LBA 4244 is retainedin the secondary host 100B, the secondary host 100B can determine thecompletion of the journal copy process by obtaining the already-read LBA4243 periodically from the secondary disk array device 200B.

If the completion of the journal copy process is confirmed, thesecondary host 100B issues a journal restore request command to initiatethe restoration of the data in the secondary journal volume.Alternatively, the restoration may be performed a significant time afterthe completion of the journal copy process if immediate restoration isnot required, e.g., a case where the secondary journal volume has alarge capacity (Step 6330; Step 5700 of FIG. 3.)

If the journal restore request command is received, the secondary diskarray device 200B restores the journal stored in the logical blockcorresponding to the specified LBA (Step 6420; Step 5800 of FIG. 3).

Further, the secondary host 100B that confirmed completion of thejournal copy process provides the LBA indicated by the already-read LBA4243 to the primary host 100A (Step 6340). The secondary host 100B thatdetected completion of the journal copy process is ready to instruct thenext journal copy request to the secondary disk array device 200B (Step6350).

The primary host 100A that was notified of the LBA indicated by thealready-read LBA 4243 instructs the primary disk array device 200A topurge the journal corresponding to the notified LBA (Step 6120). Theprimary disk array device 200A purges the journal volume correspondingto the instructed LBA (Step 6210).

FIG. 7 shows a second embodiment of the data processing system 50 towhich this invention is applied. For illustrative convenience, the samenumerals are used to refer to systems, devices, and components of thisembodiment corresponding to those of the first embodiment.

Unlike the first embodiment, the data processing system 50 of FIG. 7,the primary disk array device 200A initiates the journal copy process byissuing a data write command to the secondary disk array device 200B,rather than waiting to receive a read command from the secondary diskarray device 200B. In addition, the secondary host 100B performs thejournal restore process (Step 5900 in FIG. 7), unlike in the firstembodiment where this was performed by the secondary storage controller210B. Accordingly, the journal restore program is provided with thesecondary host.

Herein, the devices and components of the primary storage system 10 aredistinguished from those of the secondary storage system 20 by beingreferred to primary devices or components or by being provided with theletter “A” after their numerals, or both (e.g., the primary host 100 orhost 100A or primary host 100A). Likewise, the devices and components ofthe secondary system 20 are referred to as secondary devices orcomponents, or by being provided with the letter “B” after theirnumerals, or both (e.g., the secondary host 100, the host 100B, and thesecondary host 100B).

In this embodiment, since an entity of the journal copy processing isthe primary disk array device 200A and an entity performing the journalrestore processing is the secondary host 100B, a general storage nothaving a special function can be used for the secondary disk arraydevice 200B. Moreover, the data processing system 50 may employheterogeneous storage subsystems or disk array devices, e.g., thosemanufactured by different vendors or use different storage protocols ormethods since the journal copy process is performed by the primary diskarray device 200A and the journal restore process is performed by thesecondary host 100B.

In the primary site 10, the journal acquisition process (Step 5200)relating to the updates (Step 5100) of PVOL is substantially the same asin the first embodiment. The primary host 100A acquires information on ajournal creation state from the primary disk array device 200A (Step5300).

The primary host 100A issues the journal copy request command to theprimary disk array device 200A for the secondary disk array device 200B(Step 5450).

The journal copy request command includes information about thedestination journal volume of the disk array device 200B to where thejournal is to be transmitted, information specifying the disk arraydevice 200B, the source journal volume of the disk array device 200A,and the like.

The primary disk array device 200A receives the journal copy requestcommand and transmits the specified journal to the secondary disk arraydevice 200B by issuing a write command to the secondary disk arraydevice 200B (Step 5600). The secondary disk array device 200B stores thejournal received from the first device 200A in an area of the secondaryjournal volume specified by the command.

Subsequently, the secondary host 100B, using an asynchronous copymanager 150, reads the journal from the secondary journal volume andrestores data to SVOL 2214 (Step 5900).

The secondary host 100B performs pointer management of the secondaryjournal volume, and notifies information needed to make a journal copyrequest 5450 (for example, the already-restored LBA 4241 that is neededto calculate the address for copy) to the primary host 100A.

In this embodiment, by the instruction of the primary host 100A, theprimary disk array device 200A issues the write command that requiresthe secondary disk array device 200B to write the initial data of PVOL2212 into SVOL 2214 of the secondary disk array device 200Bsequentially, whereby the initial copy is achieved.

After all initial data has been written in the secondary disk arraydevice 200B from PVOL, the primary disk array device 200A executing thecopy program 2110 reports completion of the initial copy to the primaryhost 100A. The primary host 100A receives this report. After that, SVOL2214 restored in the secondary site 20 can be treated as a volumereflecting the contents of PVOL 2212.

FIG. 8 shows a third embodiment of the data processing system 50 towhich this invention is applied. The system 50 includes a firstcommunication link 48 between the hosts but does not include a secondcommunication link between the disk array devices 200A and 200B. Theexternal storage devices are used in place of the second communicationlink in one implementation.

In this embodiment, a first external storage device 60 (e.g., a tapedevice) is coupled to the primary host 100A and a second externalstorage 62 is connected to the secondary host 100B, respectively,through the Fibre Channel. The external storages 60 and 62 may beconnected with each other with the Fibre Channel etc. Alternatively, ifthese external storages are of removable storage media, such as amagnetic tape, they may be transferred by physically transporting thestorage medium between the devices.

In this embodiment, the primary disk array device 200A performs thejournal acquisition process for PVOL 2212, as in the second embodiment.The journal copy and the initial copy are performed according to thesteps explained below. (1) The primary host 100A writes data to thefirst external storage 60. That is, once the journal acquisition processhas been started, the primary host 100A reads the journal from theprimary journal volume and stores it in the external storage 60 inresponse to a user input or a predetermined schedule (Step 5620). (2)The data written in the first external storage 60 is transferred to thesecond external storage 62. This process is achieved either by theprimary host 100A or by the secondary host 100B. In one implementation,ANSI (American National Standards Institute) SCSI-3 Extended Copycommand is used for these data transfer instructions.

The hosts 100A and 100B communicate address information needed for thedata transfer, a report of data transfer completion, and the like via acommunication link. In one implementation, the user or the administratorreports to each host 100 that the data has been transferred afterphysically transporting the removable recording medium from the firstexternal storage to the second external storage (Step 5622).

(3) The data stored in the second external storage 62 is transferred tothe secondary disk array device 200B in accordance with an instructionfrom the secondary host 100B. That is, the secondary host 100B issuesread commands 5505 to the external storage 62 and reads the journal fromthe external storage 62. Then, the secondary host 100B restores the dataof SVOL 2214, as in the second embodiment, based on the journal readfrom the external storage 62 (Step 5625).

By the above procedures, the data replication from PVOL to SVOL throughthe journal volume can be performed. The initial copy is performed in asimilar way. In one implementation, the journal stored in the externalstorage 62 is not deleted even after the restore process, as long asthere is no specific instruction. Moreover, in the external storage 62,a result of the initial copy, namely initial data, is also stored.

Furthermore, since the metadata of the journal includes a time stamp ofthe updating time, in the data processing system of this invention, SVOL2214 of the secondary disk array device 200B can be restored to thecontents of PVOL at an arbitrary time from the start of the journalacquisition process. That is, by restoring all pieces of the journaleach having a time stamp earlier than a time specified by the secondaryhost 100B in SVOL in order of time, the contents of PVOL at a specifiedtime can be restored. This is called “point in time recovery.”

Further, it is also possible to perform the point in time recovery foran arbitrary volume 2216 specified by the user of the secondary diskarray device 200B. That is, for this purpose, the result of the initialcopy of PVOL stored in the external storage 62 is first copied to thevolume 2216, and subsequently pieces of the journal each having a timestamp earlier than a point of time specified by the secondary host 100Bare all restored in the volume 2216 sequentially based on the updatetime.

If there are a plurality of journals, for the same area, a mode in whichthe journal having the most recent time stamp is used to perform therestoration.

The external storages 60 and 62 may be the same or different types ofstorage devices. Moreover, they were described to be different devicesbut they can be configured to be the same device.

In the first and second embodiments, the point in time recovery involvesrestoring all the journals that indicate the update time (time stamp)older than the time point specified. The restorable image of PVOL,however, is limited the images after the update time indicated by theoldest journal in the secondary journal volume.

FIG. 9 shows a fourth embodiment of the data processing system to whichthis invention was applied. This embodiment is similar to the thirdembodiment, but differs in a respect that the external storages 60 and62 are connected (with the Fibre Channel) to the primary disk arraydevice 200A and the secondary disk array device 200B, respectively.Accordingly, the initial copy process and the journal copy process tothe external storage device 60 is performed by the primary disk arraydevice 200A in accordance with an instruction 5450 from the primary host100A (Step 5630).

The data stored in the external storage 60 is moved to the externalstorage 62 by transferring the data over a communication link accordingto an instruction 5631 of the primary disk array device 200A or byphysically transporting a storage medium (Step 5632).

Thereafter, the secondary disk array device 200B performs the readoperation relating to the initial copy process and the journal copy fromthe external storage device 62 by issuing a read command 5507 based onan instruction 5400 from the secondary host 100B (Step 5635). Thejournal acquisition and restore processes conform to the firstembodiment.

In addition, by this embodiment, the data of PVOL can be reproduced inSVOL asynchronously by transferring the journal. Unlike the thirdembodiment, since the disk array devices 200A and 200B transfer thedata, the loads on the hosts 100A and 100B are reduced. Further, also inthis embodiment, point in time recovery can be realized as in the thirdembodiment.

FIG. 11 shows a fifth embodiment of the data processing system to whichthis invention is applied. Unlike the foregoing embodiments describedpreviously, the primary storage system 10 is coupled to a plurality ofsecondary storage systems 20 and 30 in this embodiment.

In this embodiment, the journal corresponding PVOL 2212 of the primarydisk array device 200A is transferred to the secondary journal volumecorresponding to SVOL 2214B of the storage system 20 and to thesecondary journal volume corresponding to SVOL 2214C of the storagesystem 30, respectively, for the restore process. Further, initial copyis executed from PVOL 2212 to SVOL 2214B and to SVOL 2214C,respectively. Those processes are executed upon receipt of read commandsfrom each secondary disk array device or issuance of write commands fromthe primary disk array device to the secondary disk array devices.Thereby, replication of the data stored in the primary site can becreated in the plurality of sites.

FIG. 12 shows a sixth embodiment of the data processing system to whichthis invention is applied. In this embodiment, in preparation for a casewhere the secondary site 20 becomes unavailable because of a failure,etc., the user or the administrator registers one or more candidates fora site usable in place of the secondary site 20 in the primary host 100Abeforehand. A list or table 160 for these candidate sites is stored inthe host 100A in one implementation.

If the secondary site 20 is unavailable, the primary host 100A selects anew secondary site 40 from the list 160. The primary host 100A mayselect an alternate secondary site according to a predetermined order ofpriority or the list 160 has been predefined with such a preference. Theuser may define this preference order or the primary host 101A mayautomatically define the preference using a predetermined rule, e.g.,the distance between the primary site 10 and the potential secondarysite, data transfer rate, etc.

After that, the primary host 100A transfers information of the devicegroup etc. to a secondary host 100D in a newly selected secondary site40. The new secondary host 100D that received information of the devicegroup etc. requests setting information of the new PVOL, the journalpair and the journal copy between 100D itself and the primary host 100Ato the disk array device 200D connected to the secondary host 100D.Incidentally, in most cases, since the initial copy becomes necessary,the secondary host 100D requests also the initial copy to the disk arraydevice 200D. By these processing, in the newly selected secondary site40, the replication of the data stored in the primary site 10 can becontinued even if the secondary site 20 experiences failure before orduring the remote replication procedure.

In one implementation, even if the secondary host 100B experiencesfailure, the secondary disk array device 200B may still be available, asa disk array device of the secondary site 40 (e.g., in a storage areanetwork system).

FIG. 13 shows a seventh embodiment of the data processing system towhich this invention is applied.

Unlike the foregoing embodiments described above, this embodiment issuch that the primary site 10 is composed of the primary host 100A and avirtual disk array device 15A, and the secondary site 20 is composed ofthe secondary host 100B and a virtual disk array device 15B. Each host100 treats each virtual disk array device 15 as a single disk arraydevice 200. That is, each host issues the same command as in the firstembodiment to the virtual disk array device 15.

The virtual disk array device 15 is composed of the virtualizationserver 300 and a plurality of storage subsystems, e.g., the disk arraydevices 200. The virtualization server 300 is connected with the primaryhost 100A (the secondary host 100B), the plurality of disk array devices200 and other virtualization server via a Fibre Channel. This FibreChannel corresponding to the Fibre Channel 66 and 68 of the firstembodiment, and is used for communication between storage controllers210 and for the initial copy and the journal copy processes. This FibreChannel may be through a long-distance (telecommunication) circuit, suchas ATM with an intermediate of extender apparatuses in the case wherethe distance between the virtualization servers 300 is long, similarlywith the first embodiment.

The virtualization server 300 provides a group of volumes (either agroup of logical volumes or a group of physical volume) that a pluralityof disk array devices 200 connected to the virtualization server 300 mayuse as a single (or two or more) storage subsystem to each host 100, byexecuting a program 310 called a virtualization manager that converts aplurality of volumes on each disk array device 200 into a single addressspace (hereinafter, “virtual storage image”) for each connected host100.

Here, the data transfer between the host 100 and the virtual disk arraydevice 15 will be described briefly. The host 100A issues a writerequest 5100 to the virtual disk array device 15A. The write request5100 is converted to write requests 5105 to the respective disk arraydevices 200 that constitute the virtual storage image corresponding tothe host 100A by the virtualization server 300A. Then, thevirtualization server 300A sends the converted write requests 5105 tothe respective disk array devices 200. At this time, data involved inthe write request 5100 is divided into several pieces of data for therespective disk array devices 200. Further, write address is convertedto write addresses to the respective disk array devices 200.

The host 100B issues the data read request to the virtual disk arraydevice 15B. The data read request is converted to read requests to therespective disk array devices 200 that constitute the virtual storageimage corresponding to the host 100B by the virtualization server 300B.Then, the virtualization server 300B sends the converted read requeststo the respective disk array devices 200.

Then each disk array device 200 transfers the requested data to thevirtualization server 300B (Step 5115). The virtualization server 300Breceives the data and integrates the received data and sends them to thehost 100B (Step 5110).

Further, although not shown in FIG. 13, each virtualization server 300is connected to a remote console through an IP network as with each host100 and each disk array device 200. The user manages this dataprocessing system through the remote console.

In addition, it can be considered, for example, that the followingprocess is performed automatically by allowing the virtualization server300 to monitor I/O processing of each disk array device 200 connected tothe virtualization server 300:

-   (A) To alter the mapping so that the disk array device 200 in which    correctable read errors (i.e. error is detected in read data but the    data is correctable by the error correcting code stored with the    data) come to occur frequently is replaced with another disk array    device 200.-   (B) To relocate data with high access frequency in a higher-speed    disk array device.

In advance of these processing operations, if the technology of thisinvention is used, by the journal acquiring, journal copy, and journalrestore process, the data on the original disk array device 200 to bereplaced can be copied beforehand on the disk array device 200 that is atarget device of the relocation by the control of the virtualizationserver. Then, if the configuration of the virtual storage image isaltered, addition and deletion of the storage subsystem can be performedwithout discontinuing application programs.

The virtualization server 300 of the virtual disk array device 15executes the journal-backup/restore program and the copy program.

Further, the virtual disk array device 15 has PVOL, primary andsecondary journal volumes, or SVOL as was described in the foregoingembodiments. Note that PVOL, the primary and secondary journal volumes,and SVOL can be configured to exist spanning a plurality disk arraydevices, respectively, but these are treated as a (virtual) singlevolume by the host 100 or the journal-backup/restore program and thecopy program that are executed on the host 100 or on the virtualizationserver 300 by the virtualization server 300. Therefore, thevirtualization server 300 controls the same processing as the firstembodiment, i.e., journal acquiring, journal copying, journal restore,and management of the journal volume, in accordance with instructionsfrom each host 100.

Moreover, the number of the disk array device 200 to be virtualized maybe increased or decreased dynamically according to a request from theuser or a predetermined method. Furthermore, it is not necessary thatthe number of and the kind of the disk array devices 200 connected tothe primary site 10 are the same as those of the secondary site 20,respectively. In this embodiment the virtualization server 300 and eachhost 100 were described as being different devices. However, they may bethe same device; e.g., the host 100 may be provided with thevirtualization manager.

FIG. 14 shows an eighth embodiment of the data processing system towhich this invention is applied. Although this embodiment uses thevirtual disk array device 15 as in the previous embodiments, the presentembodiment differs from foregoing embodiments in that the journalacquiring, journal restore and the journal copying are performed byprograms on each disk array device 200 rather than by the virtualizationserver 300.

In addition, the disk array devices 200 of the primary site 10 and thoseof the secondary site 20 are connected with one another to constitute astorage area network (hereinafter, “SAN”). That is, the communicationlink 68 is a SAN in the present embodiment.

Further, in this embodiment, the disk array devices 200 of the primarystorage system 10 must have a information about a relationship betweenthe disk array device 200 of the secondary site 20 and the volume ownedby the disk array devices 200 of the primary storage system 10, that is,which is the disk array device 200 that becomes a communication mate ofthe disk array devices 200 of the primary storage system 10, and viceversa. For this purpose, the virtualization servers 300 share theiraddress mapping information each other (Step 3000), including any updateto the address mapping. This mapping information, in turn, is providedto the respective disk array devices 200.

In comparison of the seventh embodiment, the virtualization servers 300of this embodiment have reduced loads because the journal backup restoreprocesses are performed by disk array devices 200 and transfer rates arehigher since the data transfer between the primary site 10 and thesecondary site 20 is performed through the SAN.

FIG. 16 shows a exemplary table 170 on address mapping between the host100 and the disk array devices 200 used to implement the virtualizedvolumes provided in the seventh and eight embodiments. This table showsa case where the virtual storage images are provided two secondary hosts100B and 100C although either FIG. 13 or FIG. 14 shows only onesecondary host 100B.

The table 170 includes a column 172 relating to a target host 100 towhich the virtual storage image is provided, a column 174 relating to alogical volume that the host 100 accesses (hereinafter, “host accessLU”), a column 176 relating to disk array devices 200 constituting thevirtual storage image, and a column 178 relating to a logical volume oneach disk array device 200 (hereinafter, “storage device LU”).

In another implementation, the addressing information between the host100 and the disk array device 200 may be realized by retention of a datastructure having similar information as the table 170, e.g., a list bypointers.

In above-mentioned embodiments, the initial copy process has beendescribed as a separate process step from the journal processing.However, the initial copy may be incorporated within the journalprocessing by generating journals for the initial data of PVOL 2212(“base journals”) that are combined to the update journal that have beengenerated after the pairing (i.e. pair generation). The update journalis a journal that corresponds to an update command issued by a hostafter the pairing. For purposes of illustrating the embodiments of thepresent invention, the update journals are referred to as either“journals” or “update journals.” However, the base journals are onlyreferred to as “base journals.” This terminology distinction is appliedonly for the Detailed Description section, not for the Claims section.Accordingly, when used in a claim, the term “journal” refers to anyjournal including a base journal, an update journal, or a marker journal(to be described), or a journal including any combination thereof.

In operation, the primary host 100A issues a base journal generationcommand to the primary disk array device 200A. Upon receiving thecommand, the primary disk array device 200A generates the base journalsfrom the initial data in PVOL 2212. The initial data are data that hadexisted in the PVOL 2212 prior to the pairing. The base journalgeneration involves copying the initial data in PVOL 2212 to the journaldata area of the primary journal volume as journal data of a pluralityof journals and storing the corresponding metadata to the metadata areafor each base journal. In the metadata of the base journal, the timeinformation (time stamp) is the time when the base journal was generatedby copying the initial data into the journal data area of the primaryjournal volume. Generally other metadata information for the basejournal (e.g., address information and the length of the data) is sameas the update journal.

After generating the base journals, the primary disk array device 200Anotifies the completion of the base journal generation to the primaryhost 100A. In one implementation, the base journals are transferred andrestored according to the methods described above in connection with theupdate journals.

In one embodiment, the base journals processing can be carried out inmultiple stages, so that base journals are generated, transferred andrestored for a portion of the initial data at a time. For example, ifthe storage capacity of the primary journal volume 2222A is smaller thanthat of PVOL 2212, only the base journals of the first half of the PVOL2212 may be generated and stored into the primary volume at first. Thesebase journals (“first base journals”) are transferred, thereafter, tothe secondary journal volume 2222B for restoration. Upon completing thetransfer of the first base journals to the secondary journal volume2222B, the base journals of the second half of the PVOL 2212 aregenerated and processed. When the initial copy and the journal restoreis processed concurrently, it must be exclusively managed whether anarea of SVOL 2214 is used for the initial copy or for the journalrestore. However, if the base journals are generated and processedinstead of the initial copy, such management is not needed.

In yet another embodiment, a journal includes a marker journal inaddition to the base and update journal. The marker journal is a specialjournal used to provide control information from the primary disk arraydevice to the secondary disk array device by the journal copy process.The marker journal is associated with a flag in its metadata foridentification purposes, so that it could be easily retrieved from thejournal that may include the base journal or update journal or both. Amarker journal is generated by the primary disk array device underpredetermined conditions (e.g., the completion or suspension of the basejournal generation) and stored in the primary journal volume where theupdate journals are stored.

During the journal restore process, if the secondary storage subsystemdetermines that the restoring journal is a marker journal, the subsystemstores it in a memory and executes a predetermine process (e.g.,reporting the contents of the marker journal to the secondary host 200B)In one embodiment, a storage controller reads the marker journal andstores in its memory and transmits the content of the marker journal tothe host upon receiving a request from the host. Alternatively, thestorage controller may initiate the transmission of the content of themarker journal to the host. The marker journal accordingly provides aconvenient way to provide the secondary storage system with informationabout data processing events in the primary storage system, e.g., thecompletion of initial copy/base journal generation, the suspension orrestart of initial copy/base journal generation, and the journalacquisition or other processes.

FIG. 15 shows a ninth embodiment of the data processing system to whichthis invention is applied. The data processing system 50 includes afirst site 10, a second site 20, and a third site 30. The sites 10, 20,and 30 are coupled to each other by a network 69, e.g., a SAN. Thesystem 50 defines a first site group 8010 that comprising the first site10 and the second site 20.

Each site includes the host 100 and the asynchronous copy manager 150that is associated with the host. The host 100A included in the firstsite 10 serves as the primary host 100A, and the host 100B included inthe secondary site 20 serves as the secondary host 100B.

Further, the host 100 of each site performs the following processing byexecuting the asynchronous copy manager 150.

For example, when an abnormality occurs in its own local site (forexample, a failure occurs in the disk array device 200B connected to thesecondary host 100B and it becomes unavailable), this data processingsystem first determines whether the site where the abnormality occurredis the primary site 10 or the secondary site 20. In one implementation,each host 100 of each site monitors occurrence of abnormality inapparatuses to which the host is coupled.

If the site in which the abnormality occurred is the secondary site 20,the host 100 that detected the abnormality (e.g., the secondary host100B) requests the host 100C of the third site 30 to form a new sitegroup with the primary site 10, so that the remote replication may beperformed despite problems experienced by the second site.

If the site in which the abnormality occurred is the primary site 10,the site that detected the abnormality requests that the secondary site20 to serve as a new primary site. The secondary site 20 that receivedthe request then requests the third site to become a new secondary site.

If the secondary site itself has detected a failure of the primary site10, the secondary site 20 converts itself to a new primary site.

With the use of this embodiment, it is possible, for example, toestablish sites capable of supporting this invention in data centersaround the world as sites for changeover at the time of a failure andlend it to customers as rental sites until the failure is restored. Thecustomer who participates in this service can use the rental site forbackup of a site owned by the customer, or to reserve a further backupsite when the backup site is used. Moreover, a service provider thatruns the data center can charge the customer in accordance with actualuse of the rental site. The service provider may also charge thecustomer according to the configuration (e.g., the distance between therental site and the backup site, the number of the backup sites, thecapacity or capability of the backup site, etc.) with which the customeris provided.

The data processing systems of the above embodiments are configured makethe disk array device perform the journal acquiring, journal restore andjournal copying, and the host side perform the journal management andthe remote copy status management. Thereby, the replication of the databetween the primary site and the secondary site is performed by allowingthe hosts to exchange control instructions, and actual data transfer isperformed by means of the fiber cable between the disk array devicesetc. This operation allows the traffic on the general line between thehosts to be reduced, and the copying can be done though higher-speedline (e.g., a private line), so that the processing performance can beimproved.

Further, by using an external storage such as tape besides the privateline for data movement between the primary site and the secondary site,it becomes possible to read the journal at an arbitrary point of timespecified by the user from the external storage and to use that journalfor journal restore process. This function enables recovery of the dataat a point of time specified by the user.

Further, since the disk array device has a function of writing thejournal in another disk array device by the write command, it becomespossible to realize the data transfer and the data replication byallowing the host to read that data and perform the restore, evenwithout giving a special function to the disk array device of thesecondary site.

According to the embodiments above, when the data transfer or datareplication is performed among a plurality of sites, the traffic on thegeneral line between the hosts can be suppressed and performance of thedata transfer is improved. Further, recovery of data at a point of timespecified by the user can be performed.

Moreover, data replication among a variety of and many kinds of sitescan be performed easily.

Furthermore, it is not necessary to give a special function to the diskarray device of the secondary site. That is, the connection between thedisk arrays that are normally not compatible to one another, forexample, of different manufacturers, can be used.

In the foregoing, the invention devised by the present inventors isdescribed concretely based on the embodiments, but it should be notedthat this invention is not be limited in the embodiments and that theembodiments may be modified within a range not departing from the spiritof the invention.

1. A remote copy system comprising: a plurality of primary storagesubsystems having a plurality of primary logical storage areas, each ofthe plurality of primary storage subsystems including a primarycontroller and at least one of the plurality of primary logical storageareas associated with at least one primary disk; a primary apparatuscoupled to the plurality of primary storage subsystems; a plurality ofsecondary storage subsystems having a plurality of secondary logicalstorage areas, each of the plurality of secondary storage subsystemsincluding a secondary controller and at least one of the plurality ofsecondary logical storage areas associated with at least one secondarydisk; and a secondary apparatus coupled to the plurality of secondarystorage subsystems; wherein the primary apparatus manages a mappingbetween first address information to access the plurality of primarylogical storage areas and second address information to access at leastone primary virtual storage area, and executes a remote copy operation,wherein the secondary apparatus manages a mapping between third addressinformation to access the plurality of secondary logical storage areasand fourth address information to access at least one secondary virtualstorage area, and executes a remote copy operation, wherein the at leastone primary virtual storage area includes a copy source virtual storagearea and the at least one secondary virtual storage area includes a copydestination virtual storage area, wherein when the primary apparatusreceives a write request to the copy source virtual storage area from ahost computer, the primary apparatus sends write data received accordingto the write request to at least one of the plurality of primary storagesubsystems having a copy source primary logical storage area to storethe write data in the copy source primary logical storage area, the copysource primary logical storage area being one of the plurality ofprimary logical storage areas and being associated with the copy sourcevirtual storage area, wherein the primary apparatus transmits a copy ofthe write data and time information assigned to the copy of the writedata to the secondary apparatus, wherein the secondary apparatuscontrols to store the copy of the write data and the time information ina journal area in at least one of the plurality of secondary storagesubsystems, and wherein when a certain time is determined, the secondaryapparatus controls to store one or more copies, to which the timeinformation indicating a time prior to the certain time is assigned,stored in the journal area to the copy destination virtual storage areaso that the one or more copies are sent to at least one of the pluralityof secondary storage subsystems having a copy destination secondarylogical storage area, the copy destination secondary logical storagearea being one of the plurality of secondary logical storage areas andbeing associated with the copy destination virtual storage area.
 2. Aremote copy subsystem according to claim 1, wherein when the certaintime is designated, the secondary apparatus controls to create a dataimage of the copy source virtual storage area at a point in the certaintime in the copy destination virtual storage area, by using the copiesand the time information in the journal area.
 3. A remote copy subsystemaccording to claim 2, wherein the secondary apparatus controls to createthe data image of the copy source virtual storage area at the point inthe certain time in the copy destination virtual storage area bycontrolling to store the one or more copies, to which the timeinformation indicating the time prior to the certain time is assigned,in the copy destination virtual storage area.
 4. A remote copy subsystemaccording to claim 1, wherein a marker for informing a predeterminedevent is transmitted from the primary apparatus to the secondaryapparatus.
 5. A remote copy subsystem according to claim 1, wherein thejournal area is a secondary virtual storage area other than the copydestination virtual storage area.
 6. A remote copy subsystem accordingto claim 1, wherein the primary apparatus acquires the copy of the writedata received according to the write request in order to transmit thecopy of the write data to the secondary apparatus.
 7. A remote copysubsystem comprising: a plurality of primary storage subsystems having aplurality of primary volumes, each of the plurality of primary storagesubsystems including a primary controller and at least one of theplurality of primary volumes associated with at least one primary disk;a primary apparatus coupled to the plurality of primary storagesubsystems; a plurality of secondary storage subsystems having aplurality of secondary volumes, each of the plurality of secondarystorage subsystems including a secondary controller and at least one ofthe plurality of secondary volumes associated with at least onesecondary disk; a secondary apparatus coupled to the plurality ofsecondary storage subsystems, wherein the primary apparatus manages arelation between the plurality of primary volumes and at least oneprimary virtual volume, and executes an operation for remote copying,wherein the secondary apparatus manages a relation between the pluralityof secondary volumes and at least one secondary virtual volume, andexecutes an operation for remote copying, wherein the at least oneprimary virtual volume includes a copy source virtual volume and the atleast one secondary virtual volume includes a copy destination virtualvolume, wherein the primary apparatus receives write data according towrite requests to the copy source virtual volume from a host computer,and executes write operations to at least one of the plurality ofprimary storage subsystems having a copy source primary volume to storethe write data in the copy source primary volume, the copy sourceprimary volume being one of the plurality of primary volumes and beingassociated with the copy source virtual volume based on the relationmanaged by the primary apparatus, wherein the primary apparatus createsdata for transmission, the data for transmission includes a copy of thewrite data and time information assigned to the copy of the write data,and transmits the data for transmission to the secondary apparatus,wherein the secondary apparatus controls to store the data fortransmission received from the primary apparatus in a journal area in atleast one of the plurality of secondary storage subsystems, and whereinwhen a certain time is determined, the secondary apparatus controls tostore one or more copies, to which the time information indicating atime prior to the certain time is assigned, stored in the journal areato the copy destination virtual volume, so that a write operation to atleast one of the plurality of secondary storage subsystems having a copydestination secondary volume is executed in order to store the one ormore copies in the copy destination secondary volume, the copydestination secondary volume being one of the plurality of secondaryvolumes and being associated with the copy destination virtual volumebased on the relation managed by the secondary apparatus.
 8. A remotecopy subsystem according to claim 7, wherein when the certain time isdesignated, the secondary apparatus controls to create a data image ofthe copy source virtual volume at a point in the certain time in thecopy destination virtual volume, by using the copies and the timeinformation in the journal area.
 9. A remote copy subsystem according toclaim 8, wherein the secondary apparatus controls to create the dataimage of the copy source virtual volume at the point in the certain timein the copy destination virtual volume by controlling to store the oneor more copies, to which the time information indicating the time priorto the certain time is assigned, to the copy destination virtual volume.10. A remote copy subsystem according to claim 7, wherein a marker forinforming a predetermined event is transmitted from the primaryapparatus to the secondary apparatus.
 11. A remote copy subsystemaccording to claim 7, wherein the journal area is a secondary virtualvolume other than the copy destination virtual volume.
 12. A remote copysubsystem according to claim 7, wherein the primary apparatus acquiresthe copy of the write data, and creates the data for transmissionincluding the copy of the write data and the time information assignedto the copy of the write data.
 13. A method for remote copying from aprimary subsystem to a secondary subsystem, wherein the primarysubsystem includes a plurality of primary storage subsystems having aplurality of primary logical storage areas and a primary apparatuscoupled to the plurality of primary storage subsystems, each of theplurality of primary storage subsystems having a primary controller andat least one of the plurality of primary logical storage areasassociated with a primary disk, and wherein the secondary subsystemincludes a plurality of secondary storage subsystems having a pluralityof secondary logical storage areas and a secondary apparatus coupled tothe plurality of secondary storage subsystems, each of the plurality ofsecondary storage subsystems having a secondary controller and at leastone of the plurality of secondary logical storage areas associated witha secondary disk, the method comprising steps of: by the primaryapparatus, managing a mapping between first address information toaccess the plurality of primary logical storage areas and second addressinformation to access at least one primary virtual storage area, the atleast one primary virtual storage area including a copy source virtualstorage area; by the secondary apparatus, managing a mapping betweenthird address information to access the plurality of secondary logicalstorage areas and fourth address information to access at least onesecondary virtual storage area, the at least one secondary virtualstorage area including a copy destination virtual storage area; by theprimary apparatus, receiving a write request to the copy source virtualstorage area from a computer; by the primary apparatus, based on themapping managed by the primary apparatus, sending write data receivedaccording to the write request to at least one of the plurality ofprimary storage subsystems having a copy source primary logical storagearea to store the write data in the copy source primary logical storagearea, the copy source primary logical storage area being one of theplurality of primary logical storage areas associated with the copysource virtual storage area; by the primary apparatus, transmitting acopy of the write data and time information assigned to the copy of thewrite data to the secondary apparatus; by the secondary apparatus,controlling to store the copy of the write data and the time informationin a journal area in the plurality of secondary storage subsystems; andby the secondary apparatus, when a certain time is determined,controlling to store the one or more copies, to which the timeinformation indicating a time prior to the certain time is assigned,from the journal area to the copy destination virtual storage area sothat the one or more copies are sent to at least one of the secondarystorage subsystems having a copy destination secondary logical storagearea, the copy destination secondary logical storage area being one ofthe plurality of secondary logical storage areas associated with thecopy destination virtual storage area.
 14. A method for remote copyingaccording to claim 13, wherein when the certain time is designated, thesecondary apparatus controls to create a data image of the copy sourcevirtual storage area at a point in the certain time in the copydestination virtual storage area, by using the copies and the timeinformation in the journal area.
 15. A method for remote copyingaccording to claim 14, wherein the secondary apparatus controls tocreate the data image of the copy source virtual storage area at thepoint in the certain time in the copy destination virtual storage areaby controlling to store the one or more copies, to which the timeinformation indicating the time prior to the certain time is assigned,in the copy destination virtual storage area.
 16. A method for remotecopying according to claim 13, further comprising a step of transmittinga marker for informing a predetermined event from the primary apparatusto the secondary apparatus.
 17. A method for remote copying according toclaim 13, wherein the journal area is another secondary virtual storagearea other than the copy destination virtual storage area.
 18. A methodfor remote copying according to claim 13, further comprising a step ofby the primary apparatus, acquiring the copy of the write data receivedaccording to the write request in order to transmit the copy of thewrite data to the secondary apparatus.
 19. A method for remote copyingbetween a primary subsystem and a secondary subsystem, wherein theprimary subsystem includes a plurality of primary storage subsystemshaving a plurality of primary volumes and a primary apparatus coupled tothe plurality of primary storage subsystems, each of the plurality ofprimary storage subsystems including a primary controller and at leastone of the plurality of primary volumes associated with at least oneprimary disk, and wherein the secondary subsystem includes a pluralityof secondary storage subsystems having a plurality of secondary volumesand a secondary apparatus coupled to the plurality of secondary storagesubsystems, each of the plurality of secondary storage subsystemsincluding a secondary controller and at least one of the plurality ofsecondary volumes associated with at least one secondary disk, themethod comprising steps of: by the primary apparatus, managing arelation between the plurality of primary volumes and at least oneprimary virtual volume, the at least one primary virtual volumeincluding a copy source virtual volume; by the secondary apparatus,managing a relation between the plurality of secondary volumes and atleast one secondary virtual volume, the at least one secondary virtualvolume including a copy destination virtual volume; by the primaryapparatus, receiving write data according to write requests to the copysource virtual volume from a host computer; by the primary apparatus,executing write operations to at least one of the plurality of primarystorage subsystems having a copy source primary volume to store thewrite data in the copy source primary volume, the copy source primaryvolume being one of the plurality of primary volumes and beingassociated with the copy source virtual volume based on the relationmanaged by the primary apparatus; by the primary apparatus, creatingdata for transmission, the data for transmission including a copy of thewrite data and time information assigned to the copy of the write data;by the primary apparatus, transmitting the data for transmission to thesecondary apparatus; by the secondary apparatus, controlling to storethe data for transmission received from the primary apparatus in ajournal area in at least one of the plurality of secondary storagesubsystems; by the secondary apparatus, when a certain time isdetermined, controlling to store one or more copies, to which the timeinformation indicating a time prior to the certain time is assigned,stored in the journal area to the copy destination virtual volume sothat a write operation to at least one of the plurality of secondarystorage subsystems having a copy destination secondary volume isexecuted in order to store the one or more copies in the copydestination secondary volume, the copy destination secondary volumebeing one of the plurality of secondary volumes and being associatedwith the copy destination virtual volume based on the relation managedby the secondary apparatus.
 20. A method for remote copying according toclaim 19, wherein when the certain time is designated, the secondaryapparatus controls to create a data image of the copy source virtualvolume at a point in the certain time in the copy destination virtualvolume, by using the copies and the time information in the journalarea.
 21. A method for remote copying according to claim 20, wherein thesecondary apparatus controls to create the data image of the copy sourcevirtual volume at the point in the certain time in the copy destinationvirtual volume by controlling to store the one or more copies, to whichthe time information showing the time prior to the certain time isassigned, to the copy destination virtual volume.
 22. A method forremote copying according to claim 19, further comprising a step oftransmitting a marker for informing a predetermined event from theprimary apparatus to the secondary apparatus.
 23. A method for remotecopying according to claim 19, wherein the journal area is anothersecondary virtual volume other than the copy destination virtual volume.24. A method for remote copying according to claim 19, furthercomprising a step of by the primary apparatus, acquiring the copy of thewrite data to create the data for transmission including the copy of thewrite data and the time information assigned to the copy of the writedata.
 25. A system used for copying data from primary subsystemincluding a plurality of primary storage subsystems having a pluralityof primary logical storage areas to a secondary subsystem including aplurality of secondary storage subsystems having a plurality ofsecondary logical storage areas, comprising: a primary apparatus coupledto the plurality of primary storage subsystems, each of the plurality ofprimary storage subsystems having a controller and at least one of theplurality of primary logical storage areas associated with at least oneprimary disk; and a secondary apparatus coupled to the plurality ofsecondary storage subsystems, each of the plurality of secondary storagesubsystems having a controller and at least one of the plurality ofsecondary logical storage areas associated with at least one secondarydisk, wherein the primary apparatus manages a relation between theplurality of primary logical storage areas and at least one primaryvirtual storage area, the at least one primary virtual storage areaincluding a copy source virtual storage area, wherein the secondaryapparatus manages a relation between the plurality of secondary logicalstorage areas and at least one secondary virtual storage area, the atleast one secondary virtual storage area including a copy destinationvirtual storage area, wherein when the primary apparatus receives awrite request to the copy source virtual storage area, the primaryapparatus sends write data received according to the write request to atleast one of the primary storage subsystems having a copy source primarylogical storage area to store the write data in the copy source primarylogical storage area, the copy source primary logical storage area beingone of the plurality of primary logical storage areas and beingassociated with the copy source virtual storage area based on therelation managed by the primary apparatus, wherein the primary apparatustransmits a copy of the write data and time information assigned to thecopy of the write data to the secondary apparatus, wherein the secondaryapparatus controls to store the copy of the write data and the timeinformation in a journal area in at least one of the plurality ofsecondary storage subsystems, and wherein when a certain time isdetermined, the secondary apparatus controls to store one or morecopies, to which the time information indicating a time prior to thecertain time is assigned, stored in the journal area to the copydestination virtual storage area, so that the one or more copies aresent to at least one of the plurality of secondary storage subsystemshaving a copy destination secondary logical storage area, the copydestination secondary logical storage area being one of the plurality ofsecondary logical storage areas and being associated with the copydestination virtual storage area based on the relation managed by thesecondary apparatus.
 26. A system used for copying data according toclaim 25, wherein when the certain time is designated, the secondaryapparatus controls to create a data image of the copy source virtualstorage area at a point in the certain time in the copy destinationvirtual storage area, by using the copies and the time information inthe journal area.
 27. A system used for copying data according to claim26, wherein the secondary apparatus controls to create the data image ofthe copy source virtual storage area at the point in the certain time inthe copy destination virtual storage area by controlling to store theone or more copies, to which the time information showing the time priorto the certain time is assigned, in the copy destination virtual storagearea.
 28. A system used for copying data according to claim 25, whereina marker for informing a predetermined event is transmitted from theprimary apparatus to the secondary apparatus.
 29. A system used forcopying data according to claim 25, wherein the journal area is anothersecondary virtual storage area other than the copy destination virtualstorage area.
 30. A system used for copying data according to claim 25,wherein the primary apparatus acquires the copy of the write datareceived according to the write request in order to transmit the copy ofthe write data to the secondary apparatus.
 31. A system used for copyingdata from a primary subsystem including a plurality of primary storagesubsystems having a plurality of primary volumes to a secondarysubsystem including a plurality of secondary storage subsystems having aplurality of secondary volumes, comprising: a primary apparatus coupledto the plurality of primary storage subsystems, each of the plurality ofprimary storage subsystems having a controller and at least one of theplurality of primary volumes associated with at least one primary disk;and a secondary apparatus coupled to the plurality of secondary storagesubsystems, each of the plurality of secondary storage subsystems havinga controller and at least one of the plurality of secondary volumesassociated with at least one secondary disk, wherein the primaryapparatus manages a mapping between first address information to accessthe plurality of primary volumes and second address information toaccess at least one primary virtual volume, the at least one primaryvirtual volume including a copy source virtual volume, wherein thesecondary apparatus manages a mapping between third address informationto access the plurality of secondary volumes and fourth addressinformation to access at least one secondary virtual volume, the atleast one secondary virtual volume including a copy destination virtualvolume, wherein the primary apparatus receives write data according towrite requests to the copy source virtual volume, and executes a writeoperation to at least one of the plurality of primary storage subsystemshaving a copy source primary volume to store the write data in the copysource primary volume, the copy source primary volume being one of theplurality of primary volumes and being associated with the copy sourcevirtual volume, wherein the primary apparatus generates data fortransmission, the data for transmission includes a copy of the writedata and time information assigned to the copy of the write data, andtransmits the data for transmission to the secondary apparatus, whereinthe secondary apparatus receives the data for transmission and controlsto store the copy of the write data and the time information included inthe data for transmission to a journal area in at least one of theplurality of secondary storage subsystems, and wherein when a certaintime is determined, the secondary apparatus controls to store one ormore copies, to which the time information indicating a time prior tothe certain time is assigned, stored in the journal area to the copydestination virtual storage area so that the one or more copies areasent to at least one of the plurality of secondary storage subsystemshaving a copy destination secondary volume, the copy destinationsecondary volume being one of the plurality of secondary volumes andbeing associated with the copy destination virtual storage volume.
 32. Asystem used for copying data according to claim 31, wherein when thecertain time is designated, the secondary apparatus controls to create adata image of the copy source virtual volume at a point in the certaintime in the copy destination virtual volume, by using the copies and thetime information in the journal area.
 33. A system used for copying dataaccording to claim 32, wherein the secondary apparatus controls tocreate the data image of the copy source virtual volume at the point inthe certain time in the copy destination virtual volume by controllingto store the one or more copies, to which the time information showingthe time prior to the certain time is assigned, to the copy destinationvirtual volume.
 34. A system used for copying data according to claim31, wherein a marker for informing a predetermined event is transmittedfrom the primary apparatus to the secondary apparatus.
 35. A system usedfor copying data according to claim 31, wherein the journal area isanother secondary virtual volume other than the copy destination virtualvolume.
 36. A system used for copying data according to claim 31,wherein the primary apparatus acquires the copy of the write data, andcreates the data for transmission including the copy of the write dataand the time information assigned to the copy of the write data.